Bach Says Battlefield 3 is Short but Sweet; Multiplayer to Drive us 'Crazy'

EA and DICE know they've got an opportunity to do something special with Battlefield 3 -- perhaps even unseat the monolithic and genre-defining Call of Duty franchise. As such, information about the game's various modes of play and what we can expect have been tightly controlled.

It seems the developer and publisher are content to let in-game footage do most of the talking, giving gamers just a glimpse into what appears to be another level of graphical quality, bringing extreme realism to FPS gaming. But, are amazing graphics enough? According to Executive Producer at DICE Patrick Bach's interview with Meristation, the answer is no.

“Our major priority is to create a game that’s fun to play”, emphasized Bach; continuing to say that “Realism by itself is not our goal, but rather to make Battlefield 3 look realistic without compromising other aspects of gameplay".

To that end, DICE has put a huge emphasis on adapting EA technologies, primarily those utilized by EA SPORTS for games such as FIFA, and incorporating them into the Frostbite 2 engine in order to give Battlefield 3 the kind of jaw-dropping animations that will immerse the player into the game world and allow DICE to relate a meaningful narrative.

However, Bach admits that the multiplayer side of the game is where most players will derive the vast majority of value out of the experience. Simply, “the number of hours that many players spend in multiplayer” can’t be matched. Bach clarified that “Our objective is not to create the longest campaign anyone’s ever known, but rather one that’s interesting, full of challenges and that’s as tough at the beginning as it is at the end”. In other words, to use a humorous colloquialism: It’s not the size of the wand but the magic it possesses.

While Meristation was unable to squeeze any truly relevant information out of Patrick Bach in terms of multiplayer modes, scale, setting, weapons, maps, etc. they did get yet another tease out of the game’s Executive Producer. “We haven’t released much information about multiplayer because we want to ensure that when we do it the public will go crazy”.

Furthermore, Bach confirmed to Meristation that the "bar has been raised" and that everything in multiplayer will be "more surprising and fascinating" in this third installment of Battlefield.

It sounds like DICE and Electronic Arts are holding out until E3 2011 to drop the “Wow!” hammer. Until then, we will have to sit tight and enjoy the gameplay trailers as they’re released.